The invention relates to a motor vehicle roof with a roof opening made in a fixed roof surface, an opening which can be closed or at least partially opened by a cover as desired, and the cover, by pivoting around an axis located at or near its front edge, can be lifted, so that its rear edge is located above the fixed roof surface, and can be slid rearward above the roof surface.
Motor vehicle roofs of this kind are known as so-called spoiler or top ridge sliding roofs (see, e.g., German Offenlegungsschrift No. 33 11 452). However, such known motor vehicle roofs leave something to be desired from a ventilating engineering viewpoint. In particular, in the ventilation position, during rapid travel, relatively loud wind noises occur, and the aerodynamic behavior of the motor vehicle is negatively affected (increase of the C.sub.D value).
In commonly assigned, allowed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 320,549, filed Mar. 8, 1989, a ventilator roof is disclosed of the type having an opening in a fixed roof surface that can be closed by a single cover which, by pivoting around a pivot axis located at or near its rear edge, can be swung down into a ventilating position wherein the front edge of the cover is below the fixed roof surface while the rear edge remains approximately at the height of the fixed roof surface. Furthermore, from this position, the rear edge can be lowered and then the entire roof slid back under the fixed roof surface. Such a roof maintains favorable aerodynamic properties with improved ventilation engineering conditions, but lacks the advantages associated with a spoiler type roof.